21489: Esser: Downtown Port-au-Prince paralyzed due to insecurity and violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Agence Haïtienne de Presse

April 19, 2004


The business district of downtown Port-au-Prince has been paralyzed
due to insecurity and violence

Port-au-Prince, April 19, 2004 -(AHP)- Insecurity is raging in the
downtown Port-au-Prince area, and cases of theft and kidnapping
are commonplace.

The well known business man Michel Handal was abducted Saturday in
the central business district.

Several other individuals are also reported to have abducted, but the
families have preferred to deal directly with the kidnappers, a
source within the Haitian police told AHP.

It is in this same district that armed bandits inflicted gunshot
injuries upon  Mme Eugène Glinrood, the wife of the Bahamian
Ambassador, and stole her purse.

The small shopkeepers have not been spared either. They are forced to
pay a daily ransom, otherwise they may as well close up shop.

The presence of a few police officers does not seem to be able to
dissuade the criminals.

Large and small merchants are disappointed. "We were told that
security would be re-established in the city and that normal life
would resume", said one angry owner of a super-market, wondering
whether all the "sacrifices have been made for nothing or for the
benefit of one small group".

To date, the interim authorities have yet to announce a single
official action to curb the insecurity.

In the interim government's view, the weapons are exclusively in the
hands of Lavalas supporters. However many people have revealed that
many former military and rebels as well as escaped prisoners are
walking the streets across the country.
.